Essential Sports Training for Athletes

New sports training equipment, the Gyroboard, is now being used by some of the country's top athletes, including national representatives of netball, rugby and snowboarding.

The latest to join the list are the Southern Steel netballers, based in Invercargill. The coaching team have incorporated a new style balance board, the Gyroboard, into their training and rehabilitation programme.

The Gyroboard is a genuine, patented New Zealand invention that was released onto the market in October 2008. It combines the best features of balance, wobble and rocker boards, and is effective at strengthening core and ankle muscles, as well as improving balance, co-ordination and proprioception.

A flat surface deck is fixed to the unique Gyroboard mechanism, and mounted on top of a steel spring. The Gyroboard mechanism is fully adjustable, allowing the deck to spin 360°, and rock or tilt at varying degrees. The board can spin either slowly or freely, depending of the degree of difficulty the user desires.

The mechanism also has a secure lock function, and this, combined with the movement of the board being controlled by how much pressure the user applies, allows for safe exercise training or rehabilitation after injury.

Already being used by top level sports teams in other codes, the Southern Steel agreed to trial the Gyroboard in February, and quickly saw the benefits of the product.

Jenny Ferguson, physiotherapist to the Southern Steel, says that the Gyroboard has been an exciting new tool for the Southern Steel Netball team.

"The girls can practice jumping, hopping and landing on the board while receiving Netball passes and maintaining balance," Jenny says. "This makes ankle and proprioception rehabilitation at the elite level of Netball so much more challenging, Netball specific, fun, new and exciting for both the therapist and the athlete."

The company behind Gyroboard, Gyro Enterprises Ltd, has spent over eight years researching, developing and testing the Gyroboard in New Zealand to ensure it is a top quality sports training and rehabilitation product.

Graeme Dubar, director of Gyro Enterprises Ltd, is pleased to receive positive feedback from top level netball coaches and players.

"We've already had good response from rugby, martial arts, snowboarding and other sports, as well as from physiotherapists and personal trainers," says Graeme. "With netball supporting this New Zealand invention, I feel confident we can expand into other countries by the end of the year."

"It's great to see the Gyroboard being used by elite athletes as well as by people at grass root levels in many sports," says Graeme. "This definitely gives us the credibility we need to make my invention another New Zealand success story."

Gyro Enterprises Ltd are currently looking to expand into other countries, and are looking for distributors who can help make this happen.

For more information on the Gyroboard, please visit http://www.gyroboard.com